Treasuries Climb Well Off Worst Levels But Close Slightly Lower

(RTTNews) - After coming under pressure early in the session, treasuries regained ground over the course of the trading day on Thursday.

Bond prices climbed well off their worst levels but still ended the day slightly lower. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, inched up by less than a basis point to 1.139 percent after reaching a high of 1.162 percent.

Despite the pullback from early highs, the ten-year yield still ended the session at its highest closing level since mid-March.

The initial weakness among treasuries came following the release of a Labor Department report showing a continued decline in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended January 30th.

The report said initial jobless claims fell to 779,000, a decrease of 33,000 from the previous week's revised level of 812,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 830,000 from the 847,000 originally reported for the previous week.

Jobless claims dropped for the third straight week, falling to their lowest level since hitting 716,000 in the week ended November 28th.

Selling pressure waned over the course of the session, however, as traders looked ahead to the Labor Department's more closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.

Economists currently expect employment to edge up by 50,000 jobs in January after slumping by 140,000 jobs in December. The unemployment rate is expected to hold at 6.7 percent.